racism

Those are the words of Amir Khan, who has been booed in every fight since his loss to Breidis Prescott over a year ago.

The Guardian News paper quoted him as saying "I can only say that sometimes ,skin colour does make a difference," Khan said. "I know for a fact if I were a white English fighter maybe I would have been a superstar in Britain, and the world."

Which is a damning verdict of race relations in the UK. However his father disagreed with Amir Khan and said "I don't agree with it. I don't know why he made those comments."

British National Party leaders have voted "overwhelmingly" to ballot members on changing its constitution to allow non-white members to join.

Leader Nick Griffin said he welcomed the change, which the party had been "moving towards" for years.

If the new membership rules are approved, the BNP would be brought in line with the recent Equality Bill.

The party's "closed for business" talks in Hindley Green, Wigan, came on the first day of its annual conference.

Read more @ BBC News

All hail our red white and blue overloads.

Part 1

(more after the break)

Salaam

Did you watch Question Time yesterday?

Please share your views here.

BBC Report on the show plus you can watch it her aswell:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8321683.stm

Wasalaam

In recent weeks several anti-Muslim racist groups have reared their heads. Most of them seem to be football hooligans taking a break from beating each other up every other weekend.

In between bouts of organised violence they have "demonstrated", in multiethnic communities, against "Muslim extremists", mosques and, I guess, "Pakis".

Anti-racist groups have held counter-demonstrations and these have been attended by large groups of young Muslim lads. Unsurprisingly, these confrontations have ended violently and with people getting arrested.

However, there is a simpler way to deal with these racist thugs. Aside from taking the bait and locking horns with them on the streets we can try to win over their "hearts and minds".

This summer. Coming to a town near you. Football hooliganism's answer to Muslim extremists.

Armed with Youtube videos and Facebook pages a group calling itself Casuals United is organising protests in areas with large Muslim populations.

The main targets of their vengeance are Anjem Choudary and his followers.

Britain is not the country it used to be. It's once grand empire has shrivelled to a few sparsely populated islands here and there. It is no longer at the forefront of global commerce and its influence in international relations diminished as it played second fiddle to George W Bush's foreign policy for almost a decade. Ideals of Britain being powerful, home to the best race in the world, and the last bastion of civilisation no longer hold sway.

Add to this the ever-more globalised and consequently smaller world. The British, like everyone else, are discovering that their national identity isn't that much different from other national identities. Citizens of various countries share ideals such as justice, freedom, and compassion. The label "British" seems now to be almost without meaning.

Met Police Officer Tarique Ghaffur 'relieved of duties' after race claim

The Metropolitan police chief, Sir Ian Blair, today made a dramatic intervention in the race row engulfing his force when he announced that the senior officer who accused him of being a racist was being temporarily relieved of his duties.

Blair said this afternoon that Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur had been put on authorised leave of his responsibilities with immediate effect.

He blamed Ghaffur's behaviour since his announcement last month that he was taking Scotland Yard to an employment tribunal for racially discriminating against him.

I was in the kitchen at work today, and went to the cupboard to get a mug for my tea. I started to take one of the cups but then realised it said 'I love Israel' on the side. I quickly whipped my hand away as if the cup was on fire!

Why would I do this? Did I think that by using this mug I was somehow letting down my brothers and sisters in Palestine? And even if this was the case, why was I so scared to even touch the cup for a second? Would I get contaminated by Zionism?

I was slightly distgusted by myself for being so anti-Semitic, and then had a cup of tea with NO SUGAR to punish myself (in an Arsenal FC mug).